


Heart of Gold

by agentz123



Series: Who is Donald Duck? [16]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Dad! Donald, Donald Duck Appreciation Post, Gen, Hurt! Louie, Louie Duck Character Development, Sensitive! Louie, Takes Place Before S1’s “The Shadow War!”, headcanons, heritage, rags and riches, unconventional family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27636878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentz123/pseuds/agentz123
Summary: Scrooge teaches Louie how to swim in money.
Relationships: Louie Duck & Della Duck, Louie Duck & Donald Duck, Louie Duck & Huey Duck, Louie Duck & Scrooge McDuck
Series: Who is Donald Duck? [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1890283
Comments: 10
Kudos: 118





	Heart of Gold

**Author's Note:**

> Small Season 1 Finale Spoiler! 
> 
> I remember when I first saw this episode, I screamed when Louie had dived into the gold to finesse Magica, so I was like “why don’t I touch on that more?” I simply love how much this character has changed from “The Great Dime Chase!” and his development in seasons 2 and 3 is simply amazing. He might just be my favorite triplet (I can’t decide between him or Huey). 
> 
> Anyways, I hope you enjoy, and feedback is always welcome!

Even though (Louie would never admit this out loud) Huey was a pretty darn good ~~older brother~~ caretaker, there was just something about his uncle Donald’s mother hen ways. The young boy decided to roll out of his bed in the vast mansion and hobble down to the pool in order to get a nice steaming bowl of noodle soup (and hopefully get peppered with forehead kisses, although he’d never admit that out loud, either). 

“Uncle Donald?” he called as he limped down the gangplank. He found the sailor poring over some documents and ripping out bunches of his feathers. 

There was a surprised squawk as he quickly flipped the papers over, cutting himself in the process. “Ye —! What happened to you?” Donald rushed in a panic, running over to his nephew and analyzing his injuries. 

“Oh, Uncle Scrooge —” 

“ _Scrooge?_ Scrooge did this?” He knew it. Someone ALWAYS gets hurt —

“No! I mean, he’s teaching me how to swim in money? And boy is it painful.” The duckling rubbed his sling, recalling how the hidden spear had managed to scrape him during that last dive. 

Donald’s babbling paused. Swimming in money? That’s one of the rarest abilities in the world. As far as he knew, his Uncle Scrooge was the one to even invent the talent. “Well, yeah it’s painful! You’re plummeting into hundreds of tons of metal! Why would you even wanna do that!” Donald flashed back to how he and his sister would stare in awe as their uncle would regale them with stories of how he got his bruised joints and silver scars. Admittedly it seemed cool back then, but actually witnessing the repercussions — in his kid, no less — Donald wanted...he wanted to go up to that stupid vault and pick a fight with each and every coin stored in there! 

His nephew shrugged the best he could and slid his good wing into the front pocket of his trademark hoodie. He took on his nonchalant drawl as he responded, “It’s cool. Besides, I’ll be ready once the rich guy kicks the bucket and I inherit the Bin.”

“I’m _serious._ Why is this so important to you, Llewelyn?” Donald had no doubt that Louie would grow up to be a fantastic businessman, but he never put in hard work like this. Not unless he thought it was worth it, and the kid was nearly a metallurgist. “Why are you willing to get hurt so badly?” 

“Because.” The duckling cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. “I’m trying to repay you, Uncle Donald. For all you’ve done for us.” 

Donald choked. “W-what?” 

Louie offered his uncle a small smile. “You were never good at hiding the fact that we’re poor.” 

Donald scoffed, his gaze immediately darting to the bills he was groaning over a few moments ago. “What? We aren’t _poor_ , it’s just —“ 

Yeah, they were poor.

“Look, Louie. You don’t have to worry about that kind of stuff, okay? I —“

“And _you_ didn’t have to worry about taking care of us. My so-called mother was supposed to do that.”

Donald has always been a duck full of rage, his wick prepared for the tiniest of flames to ignite it. That statement, however, made Donald burn in another way. It made his insides ice cold, crisp enough where his heart started cracking and the energy from such began releasing heat. What did Huey call it? An exothermic reaction. 

He simply knelt and gathered the boy’s cheeks in his palms. 

“I do all of this just because I love you. You know that, right? Not because I’m expecting something in return, not because I’m doing anyone a favor.” 

“And I’m doing this because I love _you._ Come on! I’ll know when it’s gone too far. Don’t you trust me?”

More than anything in the world.

Donald relented and went to go boil some water for soup (after planting a huge wet one on his nephew’s forehead, of course).


End file.
